Setting the stage for pain relief: how treatment setting impacts interdisciplinary multimodal pain treatment for patients with chronic back pain

While interdisciplinary multimodal pain treatment (IMPT) is an effective treatment option for chronic low back pain, it is usually accomplished as an inpatient treatment incurring substantial healthcare costs. Day hospital IMPT could be a resource-saving alternative approach, but whether treatment setting is associated with differences in treatment outcomes has not yet been studied. In a retrospective matched cohort study including data from N = 595 patients diagnosed with chronic back pain and undergoing IMPT at the back pain center in Essen, Germany, we investigated the association between treatment setting (ie, inpatient or day patient of an otherwise identical IMPT) and pain intensity, disability, and self-efficacy after treatment. Outcomes were assessed by questionnaires used in clinical routine, collected at pre-IMPT, post-IMPT, and at 3-, 6-, and 12-month follow-up. The results indicate that day patients showed greater improvements in pain-related disability at 3-month post-IMPT (d = 0.74) and in pain intensity at 6-month post-IMPT (d = 0.79), compared to a matched sample of inpatients. Moreover, day patients achieved higher scores in pain-related self-efficacy at discharge, 3- and 6-month post-IMPT (d = 0.62, 0.99, and 1.21, respectively) and reported fewer incapacity-for-work days than inpatients at 6-month post-IMPT (d = 0.45). These data suggest that day hospital IMPT can be as effective as inpatient treatment and might even be more effective for the less afflicted patients. Further research regarding treatment setting and indication could guide optimized and cost-efficient treatments that are more closely tailored to the individual patient's needs.